Overall Comments

He doesn't talk much and is a quiet reserved man. But after reading his book you start to understand why. He tries to get directly across to the reader what he is really like and describes his early life growing up with Carter and how they got into music. There is nothing lost in translation. because his writing is so direct and honest you really get the picture (just like his songs!). Some of his old time stories are real funny. He is a great story teller because of his honesty and directness in the same way he is a great singer of old time songs.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Very cool autobigography of a great musician. Lots of pictures. Loads of interesting stories. He stories and descriptions are very interesting. great read

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

These method books are incredibly good quality. Hundreds of pages of learning and tablature. Taking you from complete beginner to playing in a band.

I was surprised these were not more in the main stream as they are the best books I have come across to date.

A very structured and intelligent approach by one of the great teachers of the instrument. Books all come with CD's

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I haven't worked through the tabs yet, but they appear to be easy to read. I have never been more disappointed with an instructional CD as I have with this one. The banjo sounds absolutely terrible. Twangy and plunky and scratchy. The tunes plod on mechanically. Instead of what I expected- lilting and melodic British/Scottish/ Irish tunes with melodies recognizably familiar as their American offspring-the recordings are harsh and stilted.

I will work through the tabs, ignoring the CD and see if the tabs offer more satisfaction. The tabs are referenced to the various CD tracks, but there does not seem to have any rhyme or reason to the placement. They do not follow through sequentially.

I generally expect better from Mel Bay.

Overall Rating

4

Overall Comments

If you are one who worships at the altar of prewar flathead one-piece flange Gibson RB banjos, then this book will not disappoint. Lots of fascinating anecdotes and great photography. I am still absorbing the details. I think this will be a benchmark book as it will expose more scholars to the pursuit of the history and background of the Gibson PW flatheads.

The problems I have with the book are minor, and I probably risk being ostracized for my opinions.

I find the book very narrow in scope. It appeals to a small market niche of those interested in a few prized examples this type banjo. I would have liked to see more discussion about the history and development of these banjos and why they have ended up in such a highly regarded status. Maybe more of the available blueprints and shipping records, etc.Those of us who play old Gibsons know about the mystique and appeal, but will this esoterica captivate the wider market? Or maybe it's only supposed to be an homage to the elite few of these banjos that exist.

The editing and grammar errors are distracting and probably not noticeable to most people. For an heirloom coffee-table book, I'd appreciate a little more stringent editing. Still, an impressive work, the result of one man's passion and worthy of inclusion in your library.

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

A few years ago, I suggested to a friend who was a major bluegrass photographer in the 1960s and 1970s that we put together a book about prewar Gibson Mastertones, a critter that we both have some knowledge of. We could arrange with noted banjo players for my friend to take photos of their banjos, I suggested, and he and I would interview the players and write the text. “No way,” said my friend, “We would not get access to them because they don’t know who we are” (or words to that effect).

Well, Jim Mills had the same idea, and, being Jim Mills, he does have access to the great players and their banjos. He recruited noted Nashville photographer Dan Loftin to take the photos, and the result is the book “Gibson Mastertone: Flathead 5-String Banjos of the 1930's and 1940's.” As testimony to Mr. Mills’s access to the great players, the book includes sections with descriptions of the prewar Gibson banjos played by Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, J. D. Crowe, Sonny Osborne, Butch Robins, and Steve Huber. It also includes detailed descriptions of a number of Mr. Mills’s own banjos and some other instruments. Anyone interested in prewar Gibsons should purchase a copy of this book – you will probably find it to be indispensable, right up there with Greg Earnest’s website and the Gruhn and Carter book “Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments,” for which Mr. Loftin also did the photos. However, like most books it has its strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:
As expected, the photography is outstanding, well worth the price of admission. And Jim Mills writes about the banjos with passion, with charm, and occasionally with humor. Furthermore, the text is full of interesting anecdotes, information, and opinions from Mr. Mills, who is one of the major collectors and dealers of prewar Gibson flatheads, and most readers will find that their knowledge about the instrument is greatly increased by the book. A particularly important feature, for example, is the section at the end of each instrument’s description in which the provenance of that particular banjo is detailed. It is remarkable to discover how much is known about the history of some of the banjos, and how little is known about others. Also scattered throughout the book are references to the mismatch often found between the hypothesized date of manufacture suggested by the Gibson “serial numbers,” and the verified date of shipping when shipping information is available. Mr. Mills makes the point that we will probably have to rethink our view of the actual chronology of manufacture of the different models, given the demonstrable inaccuracies arising from consideration of the “serial numbers” alone.

An especially enjoyable surprise for me is the book’s inclusion of the Hoke Jenkins RB-6. The dogma has been that Gibson never produced a 5-string version of the model 6, one of the high end Gibsons. Although model 6 aficionados have for some time been aware of reports of at least one original model 6 flathead 5 string, the only hard evidence for it has been the photo of Hoke Jenkins with Jim and Jesse in 1952 holding what appears to be an original 5-string model 6 (see the Bear Family’s box set of Jim and Jesse). As Mr. Mills points out, they weren’t making repro necks in the early 1950s. Mr. Mills has tracked the banjo down, and the book displays it in glorious photos and analyzes its characteristics and history in loving detail. For me, this banjo alone justifies the cost of the book.

Weaknesses:
The down side is that book contains a lot of mostly trivial errors that are, nonetheless, irritating and distracting. That is, the writing is not very professional, and there are lots of errors in punctuation and grammar. Furthermore, aspects of the text are annoyingly repetitive. For example, throughout the book there are multiple references to “my good friend” or “my very good friend.” No doubt Mr. Mills has many friends in the banjo world, but it becomes distracting for him to refer to so many people in this way. Now I can already hear the defensive howling in some quarters of BHO: “Mr. Mills is not a professional writer, this does not pretend to be a work of great literature, I can understand what he is trying to say even if the writing is not the best, not everyone is an English professor, good punctuation and grammar don’t matter,” and so on and so forth, blah blah blah. Some of this I won’t disagree with, but here’s the deal. This is a BOOK; it is not an e-mail message or a posting on BHO, all of which are ephemeral and ultimately discardable. The book is an important piece of work, a major contribution, indeed a scholarly effort, and it is part of the permanent historical record. Copies of it will be available in public libraries, and it ought to be found on the bookshelf of every person who is a 5-string banjo player or who is seriously interested in prewar Gibsons. Hence it should be as well written and as carefully prepared as possible. Mr. Mills and his publisher should have spent a little extra money on the services of a professional editor, who would no doubt have cleaned up the text considerably.

But these are minor quibbles, and no doubt most readers will either be unaware of them or not care at all. However, there is a major error in the book that will have to be corrected in future printings: The major error is that Mr. Mills consistently misspells Butch Robins’s name throughout! He adds an extra B, making it Robbins (sic) rather than Robins. This is embarrassing, to say the least. He also misspells Jim Smoak’s name (“Jim Smoke”). Good thing he got it right with Earl Skrugs, Sunny Osbourne, J. D. Crow, and Bill Kieth. Just kidding!

I note that the book makes another significant error in attribution or credit for the photo of J. D. Crowe on page 24. The photo says, "Courtesy of the Jim Mills Collection." The photo was in fact taken by, and belongs to, Ron Petronko. Ron took the photo in 1960, at the Ottawa Auditorium, in Ottawa, Ontario, and it has been on display in the International Bluegrass Museum. This too should be corrected in future printings.

Overall evaluation:
As noted at the outset, those of us interested in prewar Gibson flathead banjos of the 5-string persuasion will find the book to be indispensable. It provides detailed and extremely valuable information about a variety of representatives of the species, and the photography is positively stellar. The shortcomings in the presentation of the text can be overlooked, with the exception of the misspelling of Butch Robins’s name and Jim Smoak’s name, and the miscrediting of Ron Petronko's photo of J. D. Crowe. Once those glaring errors are corrected, the book will deserve the top rating of 10.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

This is a recently published book of banjo tablature by Kyle Datesman. Here's the link:

http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=96574BCD

I bought this because the content looked largely unfamiliar to me, and there were some enticing tune titles. The blurb promised some unusual key signatures and modes. I liked the fact that it gives several tunes in more than one key, and that it tells you which mode every tune is in. I've had it about a week, and I'm learning a few tunes from it. It's an eccentric book in many ways, and I find certain aspects of it utterly baffling.

For one thing, the title is a bit of a misnomer. I hear little that isn't Irish in these melodies. The repertoire is predominantly fiddle tunes, jigs and hornpipes. It's fundamentally Irish-American in character, with plenty of repertoire from the US of A.

For another, I'm really curious to know where on earth Kyle Datesman has found all this material. His introductions discuss certain details of the melodies in quirky and interesting fashion, but he never mentions sources.

I wouldn't care, only many of these tunes bear no relation whatsoever to tunes I'd associate with them. There's a "Sail Away Ladies", a "Wind That Shakes The Barley" and a "St Annes Reel" that I've never heard before. They're not simply variations on a theme: they're completely different tunes. I'm no expert, and this may well be ignorance on my part, but I've never heard any arrangements of these that come close to what's tabbed in this book. In the case of "Wind that Shakes the Barley" there's a further anomaly: he gives the tune in two different keys, yet the second arrangement is almost an entirely different tune.

I keep experiencing a nagging scepticism to how much of the author's own composerly 'tweaks' has slipped in. There are a lot of dischords and whole-tone progressions. And the majority of the tunes have a peculiar resistance to resolving themselves in conventional ways – phrases end on strange notes of the scale, and do so too often to ascribe it to a tab typo.

A good example is a beautiful tune called 'Ebenezer'. It has some gorgeous discordant intervals that bring to mind both Joplin rags and Ravel. It doesn't sound like anything I've heard from any British traditions, or indeed from any old modal mountain tunes. Does anybody know this tune? Where's it from?

The closest thing I've heard to this material is the banjo playing of Dan Levenson. He has an album calld Barenaked Banjos that has a similar flavour. ('Betsey Likens' being a good case in point.) And I can hear some echoes of these melodies in some of Andy Irvine & Paul Brady's albums too.

The book comes with an accompanying CD, which isn't all that helpful: it sounds like it was dashed off quick, and it's pretty messy. There are no dynamics to the playing and quite a few other open strings ring out sympathetically, making it very hard to get a sense of the song's mode and mood. (He even - I think - hits the odd neighbouring string once or twice.)

All that said, this is in some ways the most facinating banjo book I've ever bought. It's got my fingers negotiating some very odd stretches. Datesman loves these descending runs that are often chromatic or whole-tone, which have you splaying your fingers in spidery stances up the neck. In the short time I've had it, I've grown much more practised at flea-like springs across strings and frets. These tunes really favour – in fact demand – taking brave liberties with the pace and the dynamics. You get a lot of mileage out of letting certain notes sustain over the next.

So there you have it: some gorgeous if eccentric tabs that may or may not be of dubious provenance. For anyone interested in [very] old-time modal mountain stuff, this should be a must-have. And that goes, in a funny kind of way, for anyone interested in classic or ragtime banjo too.

[ENDNOTE: I'd really appreciate it if any banjo pickers on here, or any experts in this repertoire could check out the link and tell me a bit more about yr opinion of these transcriptions and where they might be from. On the Mel Bay site, you can look at a few sample pages.]

Overall Rating

8

Overall Comments

This magazine is a must have for players or lovers of old time music. Featuring many articles on old time styled banjos, old time banjo players and even the creation of banjos, etc. Nice, professional production. Also, customer service is top notch.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I picked this up at JDMC while having my frets dressed. I have been pleasantly surprised at how accessable the tabs are. I have seen intermediate banjo books with tabs that were not this easy to follow. Some of the tabs are very comprehensive. Sally Goodin has the backup to all fiddle breaks and, of course, the banjo break. All that is not included is the banjo backup for the guitar break. The book includes solos and selected backups to all of the songs from two great albums: THE OLD HOME PLACE and FLASHBACK.
The tabs are so accessable, I believe, because J.D. plays with such taste. Picking the tabs are easy, getting the note seperation and drive that J.D. always brings to the table is the difficult part. Difficult, but I can't think of better material to work on note seperation, taste, timing and subtlty in picking. I cannot recommend this Accutab publication enough, and it is great for picking along with the songs on the two CDs. John Lawless, Bill Evans and J.D. himself did wonderful work on lining out these tabs and proofing them

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Wayne Erbsen's book is a great way to start off on the banjo. His plain speakin' will have you rappin' and frailin' the banjo in no time flat. The greatest asset of this book is that it teaches you how to play while teachin' you to go ahead and think for yerself some. Also, there are plenty of great ol' mountain tunes included and it teaches you how to play in every tuning with the scales included. Builds a good foundation for you to go ahead and explore the world of clawhammer banjo. Nice!

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

This is an awesome book/cd package. The tunes in this book are written out just the way Alan plays them. They are not watered down or simplified. They are not easy to play but are well worth the effort. Even if you are not inclined to spend the time learning the arrangements note for note there are a ton of great licks and harmonic ideas that you can extract and use in your own arrangements. I am amazed at how many things I have found that I have not seen elsewhere. These arrangements are a treasure trove of ideas. All the tunes are played on the included CD so you can listen what it is supposed to sound like. If you are like me this is critical since I am pretty good at figuring out the fingerings from tab, but I don’t always get the feel for how those notes fit together. For an intermediate player like me this book has also been a confidence builder. Although I am at a loss to understand how Alan comes up with all these wonderful ideas, I have not come across anything that I do not believe that I couldn’t learn to play with enough practice. This book is a great learning tool and perhaps even more importantly it is just downright fun.
I’m working on “Red Wing” right now. Very Cool! Here are the tunes included: Old Joe Clark, Fred’s Frolic, Red Wing, Old Spinning Wheel, Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet, Seeing Nellie Home, Liza Jane, Lonesome Road Blues, Peaches and Cream, Prisoner’s Song, Grandfather’s Clock, Titanic, John Henry, The French Broad, and Pavan for a Dead Princess. The last two are a little avant-garde for my taste but are interesting to listen to on the CD.

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

The best frailing/clawhammer guide to teaching yourself how to play and make music with the five string banjo. This book makes learning the five string banjo peace of cake.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

The book shows everything you need to know about the banjo, almost to much? It's quite messy, but informative though. It comes with a CD which is a big help. Not so much fun as other banjo books I've read, but OK ;-)

Overall Rating

6

Overall Comments

This book teaches us how to play on an higher level than in "The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo". It's filled with practice tips and great exercises. It's a joy to read and it really makes you dig to find your creative side. Excellent!

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

This is probably the ultimate beginners guide for how to play scruggs style. You start out with a simple melody line which you later can add the, ice cold licks, the cool licks, the warm licks, the hot licks and in the end the RED HOT LICKS.

This is a little book with a great layout. I think everybody from 5 years to 110 with some reading skills and a CD player can learn to play bluegrass banjo with this book.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

This is really the ultimate plectrum banjo player's guide (over 280 pages!). It has tons of exercises and if you have the patience to complete them all you WILL be a good plectrum banjo player.

The negative side is that the book i boring... Almost no colors, just alot of text and exercises, but overall a good book.

Overall Rating

7

Overall Comments

I just got this book about a week ago, and I am really excited about it. It has tabs for just about every fiddle tune you can imagine, from the parking-lot classic to the deeply obscure. In many cases, especially for the most well known tunes, he has included variations on sections, or even entire songs. The two CD's included with the book are well recorded, with the songs played at a tempo that is slow enough to hear the individual notes, but fast enough to get the melody and feel of each piece. The pieces cover a range of styles, keys and tunings.

I have a couple of Tony's other books, specifically "Teach Yourself Bluegrass Banjo", "Melodic Banjo" and "Masters of the 5-String Banjo" all of which have at least a few fiddle tunes. I like the arrangements in this book better. The tabs are also well written and clear. My biggest problem is deciding which songs to tackle first-- I want to learn them all!

My only complaint is that there seem to be some "missing" tabs-- in the book, Tony talks about a second version of Jerusalem Ridge in A, but I can't find it on either the recording or the book. Maybe he (or the publisher) decided it was too hard; he does say that the fingering is too tricky to explain (not enough space). There is also a cool second version of Devil's Dream on the CD that is not tabbed out. Maybe I should just take these as challenges though; I keep feeling I would probably learn ten times as much if I had transcribed these songs myself. Also, there are a couple of "bonus" songs that were apparently added at the last minute-- St. Anne's Reel and ... something else. (Don't have the book in front of me now.)

Highly recommended. I hope he puts out tabs from "Double Bluegrass Spectacular" next...

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Published by Mel Bay, this instructional guide is "the guide" for anyone wanting to learn to play Old Tyme Banjo, especially old fiddle tunes. Dan starts with a unique twist, the double thumb technique. This allows the beginner to learn the basics of clawhammer banjo faster and easier. He teaches 12 tunes that you can actually play and hold an audience to in an entertaining style. The book, although a little dogmatic, uses that dogma to properly instruct the beginner on banjo technique. This is a must buy in my opinion.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Even if you are strictly bluegrass or just interested in banjo history, this book is a must have

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

This was my third purchase in the series of banjo instruction books and tab collections and I must say that I was somewhat disppointed, not in the content, but in the publication itself. It appeared to be quickly thrown together, stapled and shipped out the door. It was definitely not proof read by anyone, for many melody and back-up tabs were reversed. The instruction is top rate and I have learned and enjoyed all of Patrick's lessons, but for this price, I really expected a much nicer music book. I always try to find books that are spiral bound because it is so much more convenient when playing from a music stand.

Overall Rating

4